1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a card recording apparatus for transferring fusing or sublimating ink to a recording medium such as a credit card with magnetic stripes, for instance, specified in JIS X6301/6302 or an IC card with an external terminal, for instance, specified in JIS X6303, or a combined card thereof, and more particularly, relates to a re-transferring type card recording apparatus, wherein an ink image is once transferred to an intermediate recording medium, and is re-transferred to the recording medium from the intermediate recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Arts
There is well known a re-transferring type card recording apparatus where an ink image is once transferred to an intermediate recording medium and is re-transferred to an recording medium from the intermediate recording medium. In connection with that, various kinds of card recording apparatuses have been proposed. As an example, there is a card recording apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication 8-48047/96. The description is given to the card recording apparatus in the prior art, referring to FIGS. 8 and 9.
FIG. 8 is a plan view of a card recording apparatus in the prior art.
As shown in FIG. 8, the card recording apparatus generally comprises an ink film 1 extended between a first supply real 6 and a first take-up real 5, an intermediate recording medium 7 extended between a second supply real 8 and a second take-up real 9, a first heating section 500 having a platen roller 4 and a thermal head 3 for transferring ink of the ink film 1 to the intermediate recording medium 7 by pressing and supporting both the ink film 1 and the intermediate recording medium 7 interposed between the thermal head 3 and the platen roller 4, and a second heating section 300 having a heating roller 14 and a pressing roller 15 for transferring an ink image formed on the intermediate recording medium 7 to a recording medium 2. The ink film 1 and the intermediate recording medium 7 are transported to the first heating section 500 in a closely adhering state. Thereby, the ink of the ink film 1 is heated, resulting in an ink image on the intermediate recording medium 7. After that, the intermediate recording medium 7 is transported to the second heating section 300. Thereby, the ink image formed on the intermediate recording medium 7 is transferred to the recording medium 2.
This kind of a thermal transfer recording apparatus is referred to as a re-transferring recording method, resulting from printing an image on the recording medium by using the intermediate recording medium 7. In addition, the apparatus has advantages to record an image on a whole surface of the recording medium 2 and to cause no problem upon recording the image even when the recording medium 2 has some unevenness thereon. Thus, this kind of apparatus is applied to an image recording for a credit card.
In such a card recording apparatus in the prior art, the card is transported in a longitudinal direction of the card. In FIG. 8, the recording medium 2 is shown as a credit card having magnetic stripes as specified in JIS X6301/6302. In order to record magnetic information along with image information on the card, it is necessary to transport the card in the longitudinal direction of the card, and to record the magnetic information on the card by using a magnetic head disposed along a traveling path of the card or by using a separate unit.
FIG. 9 is a schematic plan view for explaining an exchange of an ink film or an intermediate recording medium as a consumable article in the card recording apparatus of the prior art.
As shown in FIG. 9, constructive members located on the side of the ink film 1 in the card recording apparatus of the prior art are installed in a first unit 600. On the other hand, the constructive members including the intermediate recording medium 7 and the second supply and take-up reels 8, 9 which are located on an opposite side of the ink film 1, are installed in a second unit 700. The first and second units 600, 700 are connected by using slide members for assembling/separating them in a parallel direction.
However, in the above card recording apparatus, there are problems as follows.                (1) As the magnetic information and the image information are recorded on the card by transporting the card in the longitudinal direction thereof, a traveling path of the card becomes long, resulting in a limitation to reduce overall dimensions of the apparatus.        (2) A direction of the image printing in the second heating section 300 coincides with the longitudinal direction of the card, resulting in a difficulty to print the image at high speed.        (3) The apparatus has a constructive feature that the first and second units 600, 700 are detachably assembled by using the slide members, resulting in not only a degradation of a positional precision between the first and second units 600, 700, but also a reduction of a stiffness of the apparatus.        (4) Upon exchanging the intermediate recording medium 7 or the ink film 1, it is a difficult work to extend the intermediate recording medium 7 between the second supply reel and take-up reels 8, 9 or the ink film 1 between the first supply and take-up reels 6, 5.        (5) In the second heating section 300, the heating roller 14 is used. Thus, upon exchanging the intermediate recording medium 7 or the ink film 1, the heating roller 14 is exposed. In order to prevent an operator from being burnt with the heating roller 14, it is necessary to provide a shutter geared to the assembling/separating operations of the first and second unit 600, 700, or to apply a burning prevention treatment nearby a metal of the heating roller 14, resulting in an increment of a production cost of the apparatus.        (6) There is provided a transparent image acceptance layer on the intermediate recording medium 7 for being transferred to the recording medium 2 along with the ink image. The transparent image acceptance layer has a thickness of 1 μm. Thus, a surface of the image recorded on the recording medium 2 is easily worn.        